Topical RSS Feeds & Blogs

Earlier this week, Mark Jones (executive editor, news) of InfoWorld wrote in his blog/column, TechWatch, that he'd like to see more PR people using RSS;

Dan's [Gillmor] right in that we, the media, would love to see more PR people publish product and company news via RSS. Ultimately I'd like to see PR companies offer RSS feeds for specific technology categories.

I took him up on this challenge, and created four topical newsfeeds for our client news. I also created blogs for each one, and sent a note to Mark telling him about it. The result was wonderful. He blogged:

Then we have PR company Albrycht McClure & Partners, who emailed to say they've created a number of feeds, based on topic areas. Interestingly, the offer both RSS feeds and blogs for each of their topic areas: IT security, Mobility, IT service & Support, and Business Strategy & Operations. That's smart because it allows them to "cross-pollinate" the news feeds based on the news offered by each vendor client. And the blogs themselves have the potential to create conversations, which of course is what blogging is all about.

The kicker is really cool. The company's MD Elizabeth Albrycht said: "Let me know which feeds you subscribe to, and I will remove you from our email databases. I too, look forward to the day we don't have to blast email to journalists."

Hurrah!

Send me more vendor or PR-related RSS feeds and we will start compiling a reference list.

I also sent a note to Dan Gillmor, who responded nicely as well.

So, PR folks, get those feeds going!

Comments

[Jeremy Pepper]

I love the idea - it's part of the reason I took on OnePress (www.fe77.com/onepress.jsp) with automated press room, XML, etc - but I still think it's a niche tech industry issue.

Dealing with consumer or entertainment press, I'm lucky if they have email addresses, which means it's fax time.

Plus, some of the most tech PR people I know don't talk much or know much about RSS.